Supervisors Propose Reduced Bus Fares On Election Day

MCTS bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Supervisors are holding a special meeting Tuesday to consider reduced bus fares for county residents on election day.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Two years ago Milwaukee County Supervisor Peter Burgelis proposed making fares free on election day. And before that, in 2018, Sup. Sequanna Taylor sponsored a resolution that would have made fares free on election day.

In 2018, Taylor asked her colleagues to pause consideration of her proposal, noting other options for low-income or riders with disabilities. The resolution sponsored by Burgelis faced opposition from transit officials concerned about the budgetary impact and the county’s attorney who said it was likely illegal, and the board never passed it.

The latest resolution, sponsored by Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, doesn’t propose to make fares free. Instead, it would reduce fares systemwide by up to $1 per person on election day, using $22,000 from the county’s rainy day fund to pay for it. This modest reduction would keep the county within the bounds of state law, based on a 2023 legal opinion from the Office of Corporation Counsel (OCC).

Nicholson’s resolution, like Burgelis’ and Taylor’s before her, begins by invoking a Latin inscription on the side of the Milwaukee County Courthouse that reads, “Vox Populi Vox Dei,” or, “The voice of the people is the voice of god.”

The resolution states that the right to vote is the “foundation of democracy” and that “transportation barriers” can prevent people from voting.  “Milwaukee County seeks to emphasize the importance of voting and encourage all citizens to exercise their civic duty by reducing the cost of bus and paratransit trips to their polling places on election day,” the resolution states.

The previous attempt to make fares free on election day, which Nicholson voted for, was found by the county’s attorneys to likely be illegal for two reasons. The first is that state law prohibits giving anything of value greater than $1 to someone to induce them to vote, according to an OCC analysis of state statute. The second is that Burgelis’ resolution stated the purpose of the free fare was to encourage voter participation. While other local governments have provided free fares on election day, the OCC noted that the absence of a lawsuit did not establish the legality of the proposal.

Transit officials were concerned about the legality, and potential budget impacts of the proposal. Eliminating fares on election day directly impacts the transit budget. But officials were also concerned that the politics of the proposal could endanger transit funding, specifically, how Republicans in the state Legislature would react. “I guess I’m opposed to anything that puts a target on our backs to have the Legislature look at us and identify us as going against their concerns and their interests at this time,” said Donna Brown-Martin, Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), in 2023.

Two years before Brown-Martin said that the Republican-controlled Legislature cut more than $30 million in state transit aid to the county simply because MCTS received funding for transit from the federal government.

Nicholson’s resolution also asks MCTS to incorporate guidance from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on civic engagement into their standard operating procedure. The guidance included such suggestions as providing non-partisan election information and registration materials at transit properties, use high-traffic stations for absentee ballot drop-offs or drop boxes and running special or temporary service to make access to polling locations easier.

The board’s Committee on Finance will consider the resolution at a special meeting on Tuesday, called outside of the normal committee schedule. If approved by the committee it will likely go to the full board for consideration before County Executive David Crowley presents his 2025 recommended budget later that day.

The board’s regular standing committees will not meet again until December. The board historically has not held committee meetings during November. Last year the board changed its rules, calling off its regular meeting schedule in October while supervisors worked on the next year’s budget.

Nicholson could not be reached for comment prior to publishing.

Related Legislation: Read the full resolution